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I am very excited to introduce you to The Moments Journal – my first ever physical product. I have created it to help people feel more positive and enjoy the special moments in their day.

During a difficult time earlier this year I found myself struggling to appreciate life and everything I am lucky to have. I found myself feeling less anxious, more optimistic and more grateful for what I have when I took the time to actively notice, reflect on and appreciate the good things that happen to me and others each day.

In my work with Good News Shared, I am lucky to be in contact with inspirational people who make a real difference to the world. Many of them have faced tough situations in their lives and yet still manage to find the strength to be positive and help others. They have shown me that everyone experiences good and bad times in their life- it’s their attitude when responding to them that matters.

After reading studies and research into happiness, gratitude, kindness and more, I began asking myself six specific questions every night. Finding this routine useful, I realised that it could help other people too. And so I decided to create my first ever physical product -The Moments Journal.

The Moments Journal is a guided journal, with six carefully chosen, research-backed questions for you to answer every day. Three uplifting, charitable, real-life stories are included in the journal, along with some inspiring quotes to give an extra positivity boost.

Printed in the UK on FSC-certified paper, all proceeds from The Moments Journal will be reinvested into Good News Shared, so by buying a copy not only will you be boosting your well-being, you will also be helping more positive charitable stories from around the world receive the attention they deserve.

I love social media. Especially Twitter. I don’t spend all day on it – even though I easily could – because I know I need to get other things done, and because I have come across an awesome tool.

When I started Good News Shared a lot of my time was spent on social media, either looking for great stories or sharing our stories. I had been using Hootsuite to schedule my posts, but found it so time-consuming to add new posts every week. I knew that I needed to find a way to free up some of my time, so when I heard about Edgar I was excited and curious.

Meet Edgar

Edgar is a social media automation and scheduling tool. Thanks to Edgar I now save several hours each week as I do not need to regularly create schedules. Also, I no longer need to go on Twitter every day, as Edgar will automatically keep posting my content for me. Even if I never add any new content to Edgar ever again, it will still keep posting my content for me as unlike other tools Edgar keeps all of your updates in a library which it shares on a rotating basis.

I do go on Twitter pretty much every day, but now I go on to chat with people or to read and share other peoples content.

My library in Edgar has over 900 posts…

Initially I was really reluctant to sign up to Edgar, which costs $49 per month. It seemed really expensive, especially when I could use Hootsuite for free. Eventually I decided to see if it is as good as it sounded, mainly because I knew I could cancel it if it wasn’t worth it. The set up takes a while as you have to put all your content into Edgar, but once you have you don’t have to worry about putting that content in ever again as Edgar has it saved in your library. The amount of time Edgar saves me makes the financial cost worth it in my opinion. I currently have 955 posts in my library. With such a massive amount I know there is no way I would be sharing my evergreen content as well as I currently do without Edgar.

Also, having recently started working freelance as a social media manager I am now able to use Edgar for my clients’ accounts too, as it is possible to have up to 10 accounts on the individual plan.

Alex Swallow is Programme Director of the Charity Leaders’ Exchange, Founder of Young Charity Trustees and Assistant Editor of Good News Shared. He’s also my husband- regular readers of Good News Shared might have noticed that we got married earlier this year- we actually met while working for a charity ourselves. He’s just launched his first website, www.alexswallow.com today, so I decided to interview him.

1- Could you tell us a bit about how you ended up working for the charity sector?

Like many people who end up in the charity sector, my involvement was a bit of an accident. I studied politics at Uni, then helped run a voluntary Programme in Romania; worked in Japan for two years; came back and got a Masters; worked as a political intern and a private tutor before I finally saw a job working for a small charity that caught my eye. That was about five years ago and I’ve been in and around the sector ever since: there’s a lot of it to explore!

2- Why have you decided to launch a website?

I’ve launched www.alexswallow.com for three main reasons. First, I wanted to have my own online space, distinct from social media platforms, where I can explain what I do and what I’m about. Second, I wanted to have a platform to help share the causes that I care about (including Good News Shared) with others. Finally, I wanted to have the flexibility in the future to work from anywhere and to continue to get involved with a range of exciting things as I do now, so starting a website seemed like a good step.

3- What causes are you hoping to support through the website?

As well as Good News Shared, I am hoping to promote Young Charity Trustees- which promotes Board Diversity for charities, Charityworks- which introduces bright graduates into the charity sector, Charity Careers- which tries to help people who want a career in the charity sector, (or people already in the sector who want to further their ambitions) and many other things I am involved with besides. One of my greatest pleasures is telling people about good organisations that they haven’t heard about and connecting people up who will be able to help each other.

4- How can people get involved?

If people go to http://www.alexswallow.com they can sign up for emails to get my latest blog posts and other information. Or of course they can contact me about the individual causes I support, so if for example they are a young person and interested in Trusteeship they can talk to me.

I’ll also be promoting some volunteering opportunities on the site, both for work with me and with a range of other individuals and organisations.

Thanks for the opportunity to tell people about the website (hope they like it!) and a little bit about who I am and what I’m up to.

Yesterday I attended the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) launch event in London, hoping to pick up some tips and inspiration for Good News Shared.

Global Entrepreneurship Week is the world’s largest campaign to promote entrepreneurship. Initially started in the UK, the campaign now takes place simultaneously in 150 countries. 2370 events will be taking place for Global Entrepreneurship Week this year in the UK alone.

The launch event in London, hosted by Reuben Christian, began with a talk by Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Salma Begum, one of the writers for Good News Shared and a first year student at UCL is spending 10 weeks working in a school in Kisii, Kenya. I have never volunteered abroad, so I am really excited that I will be able to follow Salma’s experiences via her blog.

I have really enjoyed reading about the preparations and fundraising Salma did before the trip, and know that her updates from Kenya now she is there will be really interesting. I am particularly excited that Salma will be video blogging from Kenya, as it will be incredible to see the school and the area she is working in.

My parents were born and raised in Kenya, so I really enjoy learning more about the country, and I am looking forward to doing so via Salma’s blog.

Have you volunteered abroad? Please share your experiences by leaving a comment below!

I found the group really friendly and welcoming, so if you are a social entrepreneur in or around London I really recommend checking S.E Alley out. Info on their events are posted on Facebook and Twitter. I am already looking forward to the next event – hope to see you there!